Monday, September 25, 2006

Second Life Fasion

"Many virtual items are bought and sold in Second Life, but clothing has emerged as one of the hottest categories. Real clothing makers, including American Apparel Inc. and Adidas, sell items in Second Life that mimic apparel they sell in the real world. Thus, players can dress their avatars in some of the same clothes they wear themselves.

Selling virtual clothes to real people for their avatars can even be lucrative: In August, the 20 best-selling Second Life fashion designers generated a combined $140,466 in sales, Linden says.

Editors of the online fashion magazines say the growing number of clothing lines can be overwhelming, and designers don't always take kindly to rejection. "I definitely don't put everything up that I get because it's just not up to the quality I want to present," says Nick Springer, a 36-year-old graphic designer from Crosswicks, N.J., who founded the Second Man, a menswear blog that recently merged with Second Style. "It's the same as any fashion magazine. Vogue isn't going to show stuff from Wal-Mart." He and some other critics have also adopted their own ethics code. They have begun noting, for example, if a designer is on their "friends list" and if they received any freebies.

The scene -- drama and all -- keeps Janine Hawkins engaged in fashion in a way that wouldn't be possible for her offline. "It's totally different to pay $15 to keep up with the fashions in Second Life than" the $1,500 that would be necessary in real life, she says. Her avatar, Iris Ophelia, originally paid for outfits by dancing at Second Life bars. "Every time I had enough money, I'd run there and buy everything I could," she says."